Hosts of the hyper-progressive and massively popular YouTube talk show The Young Turks are suggesting that the rioting at the University of California, Berkeley this week was actually part of a right-wing plot to destroy education.
In a video published yesterday, The Young Turks, a show strangely named after perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, discussed UC’s Berkeley’s decision to shut down the Milo Yiannopoulos speaking event and the unrest that followed. The hosts of the show, Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, claimed nobody really knows who the rioters were, and insisted that Berkeley students themselves played no part in the violent protests.
Uygur, who is often fuzzy on the details of the Armenian Genocide, was very clear on the details of his bizarre conspiracy, suggesting that the riot on the campus was actually a right-wing plot because “a true progressive doesn’t do violence by definition.”
The host added: ” If you are ever in a protest like this and you see people who do violence, stand away from them and point them out to the authorities. Because what they are doing is smearing you.”
He suggested it might have been people from 4chan, the infamous online forum, who left their computers and came out masked to cause violence and use a “Reichstag fire” to bring about a crackdown on education:
Could the right wing come in masked, could it be 4chan guys, who come in to cause trouble, so they could then turn around and do exactly what they did today? ‘Oh, you’ve got to take away the funding from Berkeley. I mean they are teaching science over there, they don’t teach facts … What a convenient Reichstag fire we just had.’
“You guys don’t understand how problematic all of this is,” co-host Kasparian said. “If it was a clever strategy by the right, congratulations it’s working. But don’t play into this.”
It’s interesting the host of the show would mention 4chan in his rant. A reader of Heat Street has forwarded us a screenshot of a discussion on the 4chan board involving anti-Milo protests.
“Who else ready for this Milo op? Am I /antifa/ enough for Berkeley, anons?,” one said, posting a picture of a black bandana. “Off to a good start. Edgy bandana, bro,” one replied.
“Just make sure you go all black, small designs are ok though,” disciplined another user. “Look good OP but we shouldn’t be discussing this shit on halfchan. Take all op talk into the IRC char, [n-word].”
It’s unlikely, however, that enough 4chan trolls would actually leave their online trolling and travel to UC Berkeley to cause havoc, attack people, and set property on fire.
Also, don’t believe everything you see on 4chan, Cenk.
